The GHL seminar series continues with a thought-provoking Panel Discussion on “The Consequences of Digitalising Collective Memory in China”. Join guest speakers Vivien Markert, Frederik Schmitz, Maximilian Mayer and our guest discussant Sandra Gilgan as they unpack how digital technologies are transforming the ways memory is created, contested, and controlled in contemporary China.

The discussion is based on the new volume The Digitalisation of Memory Practices in China: Contesting the Curating State (Bristol University Press, 2025), edited by Maximilian Mayer and Frederik Schmitz.

How do cutting-edge digital technologies reshape memory practices in contemporary China? Digitalisation of memory-making creates a paradox: it allows non-state actors to protect their narratives and challenge official histories, while also gi ving the Party-state tools to strengthen its control over memory discourses. This discussion examines technology, power, and memory curation in China’s evolving sociotechnical landscape, where the past is reimagined, contested and censored.

Presenters
Vivien Markert is a Research Fellow and PhD candidate at the Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen. She is doing research on religion politics in China with special focus on Islam.
Frederik Schmitz is a Research Fellow and PhD candidate at the University of Bonn. He is doing research on legitimacy and the use of history in China.
Jun-Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer is a Junior Professor of International Relations and Global Politics of Technology at the University of Bonn. His research interests include the global politics of science, innovation, and technology; China’s foreign and energy policy; global energy and climate politics; theories of International Relations.
 

Discussant
Dr. Sandra Gilgan leads the Bonn Research Alliance (BORA) of the University of Bonn. As a cultural scientist with expertise on China, her interests include Confucianism, ‘utopian thinking’, ‘utopia as method’, and ‘plural sustainabilities’. 

Join us at the Global Heritage Lab at P26 or online